As WBBM Newsradio 780 Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports, the Chicago Police force still is not up to full strength, and there is under pressure to trim the budget.

But if people are worrying about whether officers will be serious about keeping kids younger than 12 off the streets after 8:30 p.m., McCarthy reassures them.

“It’s been reported – rightfully so – that curfew enforcement is down in 2011,” McCarthy said. “However, it’s up dramatically in the last month. We’ve got more than 800 more curfew enforcement actions this year than we did last year, in the last month.”

The spike in enforcement coincides with the start of McCarthy’s tenure as Chicago Police superintendent.